Apple has become something of a fashion brand. While they still make some very good technology clearly many people buy their products for other qualities. Perhaps Apple think they risk being seen as an old persons brand and young people might defect to the competition. Buying Beats seems like a way to try and buy credibility amongst a new generation. Given that many tech buyers are fairly ignorant pushing branding and celebrity endorsements probably isn't a bad way to go for shareholders. I might think Beats is rubbish but I think most things teenagers like are rubbish so I would never make money out of them.

If they start selling MacBook Pros by Dre with loud colours, crap specs, celebrity endorsements and even higher margins than currently I think Apple will have lost the plot.

Well there is the problem. Foxtel has protected its monopoly by signing up exclusive deals and they can outbid anyone else thanks to the money they get from subscribers willing to pay $120/month. The people who do the "right thing" and pay the ridiculous prices contribute to the problems for Australian consumers. Hollywood studios who have signed these exclusive deals and who control services like Hulu have no real option but uphold restrictions to meet their contracts.

Usually the correct answer with anything owned by News Corporation is to block it, burn it, wipe your arse on it, but never, ever pay for it. You will never get your $10/month service while Foxtel can outbid them by charging ten times the price.

Abbott and his mates can legislate Pi to be 22/7 for all I care though they will have to convince the senate. Anyone who depends on modern technology to conduct business will just move elsewhere just as manufacturing has. The poor bastards like me who are too tied down to consider moving will just work around their stupidity as we always have. Fortunately unless my fellow Australians have gone completely insane he will be out after one term and the Libs can take a broom to the arsehole conservatives who have poisoned their party and get back to their core values of individual liberty, free from the tyranny of government interference.

Doctor Who: The Invasion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invasion_(Doctor_Who) has companion Zoe Heriot http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Zoe_Heriot from the 21st century disable a computer by giving it a program she claims is in ALGOL. I am guessing in the Doctor Who universe ALGOL makes a resurgence later this century when someone builds a web framework for it and it becomes the next fad.

Just need an old Nissan or Toyota and a few hours to spare.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS8KXHBCimo

...I just want a Haswell Retina MacBook Pro. Unless I get sick of waiting and just get an Ultrabook. Going back to a Linux desktop full time which would suit me fine anyway.

I went into an Apple store and held my Android phone up against one of their tiny child sized iPhone screens and just laughed. iOS apps aren't too bad, I really like iPads but their tiny phones are a joke. They aren't going to get people back from Android with those things and they are going to lose OS X users if they can't be bothered to refresh their other products.

Many years ago I setup some school filters with Squid and DansGuardian. If wouldn't make any sense to do it today. Kids have unfiltered Internet at home and usb keys and phones to carry files around. Lots of school Internet connections have quotas and performance that are years out of date and filters that go completely overboard. Many kids have faster Internet connections in their pocket. The Internet isn't a scarce resource you can be gatekeeper of anymore. Adults, both parents and teachers, need to engage with kids again instead of relying on companies and technology to do their job for them.

Now we get to see if Microsoft really has cut back on the number of people they pay to troll on Slashdot.

It is a strange list. Some of the items are sort of correct but being addressed and some of them are a complete non-issue. Not sure what AD support has to do with the success of Linux on the desktop. I don't think Grandma gives a shit about Active Directory. I certainly don't.

Conforming to stereotypes is a guaranteed way not to get noticed.

I occasionally borrow my wifes MSI Wind and it does attract female attention. I guess it is the computer equivalent of carrying a small fluffy dog.

If you don't like female attention you can probably get the other sort my slapping an Apple logo on it.

I thought the US was founded by lawyers, merchants and plantation owners.

More like the US really but with funny accents.

Oh, wait, no! They DO shoot you and lock you up for nothing in the US.

So yeah, North Korea. So ronery and sadry arone.

Australia's constitution was not made by criminals. It was written by a wealthy land owning elite. The criminals were their parents cheap labour. Australia did not exist until federation in 1901. Transportation of convicts ended in 1857.

Prior to 1901 the states were self governing colonies. The colony of South Australia was settled by free settlers not convicts. People settled my state for religious freedom, to own land and for profit - not a convict in sight.

The reason the Australian constitution is not as noble as the US constitution is that Australia was not founded by revolutionaries. We remained part of the British empire and inherited the attitudes and structures of England. The US adopted a republic based on the French model which celebrated liberty and equality.

The filter is the result of a coalition between anti-liberal socialists and catholics. The ALP right faction is strongly influenced by catholicism and is socially conservative. The ALP left factions may have championed social change once, but it I suspect it was just a reaction to the conservatism of the times and they have no real commitment to individual freedom being socialists.

So the ALP are just as crazy as the GOP religious right but far more dangerous as there is not a libertarian amongst them to stand up for freedom.

The current government used to be a socially progressive, center left workers party but probably should change their name to the Christian Democrats as they are basically a front for Roman Catholicism these days.